Hot Topics:

Other Local Sports

Debbie Boose tennis tourney sees another successful year

By Cris Tiller

Reporter-Herald Sports Writer

Posted:
06/08/2014 05:01:39 PM MDT

Bill Lacock, left, and Emily Erickson track the ball during their 4.0 mixed doubles match at North Lake Park on Sunday. The former Thompson Valley coach and player won their draw at the 14th Annual Debbie Boose Memorial Tennis Tournament. (Cris Tiller/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Emily Erickson and Bill Lacock's relationship goes back a ways.

At the start, Lacock was simply Erickson's tennis coach at Thompson Valley, but after four years the two began a working partnership on the court.

They'd play in mixed double tennis tournaments, and after time they went from student and pupil, playing partners and now level footing.

"I get to tell him what to do (now); sometimes," said Erickson, a 2012 TVHS graduate.

You'll find no argument from Lacock.

"She does," he said with a smile. "We're just good friends. We have a good relationship, and she keeps me grounded."

And now the friends can call themselves champions after winning the 14th Annual Debbie Boose Memorial Tennis Tournament finals of the 4.0 mixed doubles Sunday at North Lake Park.

Yet the road to victory proved a challenging one due to the level of competition across the net. Melissa Myers of Loveland and Brian Smith from Windsor were also good friends from years of playing doubles together, setting up what would be a back-and-forth final.

Myers and Smith came out strong in the opening set, winning with a convincing 6-2 edge. It was a forgettable start for Lacock and Erickson.

"Well we don't even remember the first set because it wasn't the prettiest," Lacock said jokingly. "But we just wanted to hold serve in the second, keep it close, and go into a third set."

A quick change in sides on their service, and the duo found a comfort level to bring home the second set 6-4, eventually out-dueling Smith and Myers in a tiebreak in the third for the win.

Advertisement

Losing, of course, isn't the way Smith and Myers wanted to end their day, but just knowing what the tournament is all about makes it worth while. With all proceeds going to Pathways Hospice and the McKee Cancer Center, there are no real losers.

"It was good, it was very good. We had fun, it's for charity and it's for the good of the charity," Myers said, who's played in the event for 10 years. "It's for a great cause."

Other winners Sunday were Brent McNair of Loveland at 4.0 men's singles, Elizabeth Smith from Windsor in 3.0 women's singles and a Loveland duo of Tommie Grassens and Eric Sorensen in 4.0 men's doubles.

Event director Jon Messick felt pleased with the Boose's 14th year, his 12th as director, despite numbers being lower than they've been in years past. Messick said they may consider moving the tournament to a different week to try and help boost participation, and handed out surveys to get feedback from this year's tournament.

"The tournament went real smooth. We didn't have any weather issues, so that always helps. Everybody, I thought, had a really good time," he said. "Our numbers were down just a little bit this year, so we're trying to see what we can do to revive it and get the numbers back up."

Messick didn't have a dollar amount raised for Pathways Hospice and the McKee Cancer Center this year as there were still items to be auctioned off, but figures in the past have been around $20,000-30,000, he said.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.